Politics. College. Cars. Life.

What's happening around me in the world, what I think about what's going on in other parts of the world, and what's new with my favorite cars from around the world. But mainly, this blog is about what's going on in my world.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

I never really realized how much of a break driving home from school and work was, and how relaxing it could be, until I moved here. The "relax" time has gotten progressively shorter and shorter since I've been moving away from rural living and moving towards the most urban of urban settings. The school/work to home commute has gone from a very enjoyable, relaxing and windy drive through the forest to a smog-filled jaunt through the streets and freeways of suburbia to literally being crammed into an overcrowded subway car. Once you start to walk towards the open doors you just keep getting pushed from behind until there's literally only enough room to breathe, and sometimes you're not even able to breathe fully. You're also crammed into a car full of commuters going down to wall street and showing up to their highly stressful jobs only to have heart attacks and add to their ulcers, all so they can make a pretty penny. A big departure from the windy trek that let us unwind going up (and down) Highway 9. Even living in suburbia we had that "buffer" time between the stresses of work/school that let you unwind and clear your mind before you returned home. Here, you're just moving between types (and intensities) of stress - and you're constantly surrounded by them. I think that's what I really miss most about California, and why I miss driving so much.

There was more posturing today in the big YouTube-Viacom copyright showdown that began around the time that Google acquired YouTube and started talking to big copyright holders about paying them to get their content legally onto the popular video site. It spun out of control from there until it became a billion dollar lawsuit.

Normally I'm on the side of whoever's against the copyright holders and their agenda of ever-expanding rights on these types of issues. They will stop at nothing to preserve their expired business models.

In this case, though, I'm just as afraid of YouTube, which still aims to get rights to show all, or virtually all, professionally produced television and film content. Their goal is simple - copy the adsense model and get the same stranglehold on advertising around video that they have around search.

That may be more difficult for Google than sewing up search was, since there are so many players determined to stop them before they get a proper foothold. The music guys got hooked on the iTunes fees and still haven't been able to get off the juice. Their tv and film cousins are fully aware of what happens if a single middleman gets too much power.

What's Best For The Internet?

The front lines of the copyright war are the ISP and service provider skirmishes. The MPAA and RIAA continue to fight consumers directly, of course, but their only real chance of locking down the Internet and file trading/steaming is to go after the companies that allow it to happen. In 1998 the DMCA made copyright infringement even more illegal than it already was, but also gave service providers a safe harbor to protect them against infringement by their users.

Did/does YouTube properly comply with the DMCA? That's pretty much irrelevant at this point. What matters is the law going forward. And since this case is likely to go to trial, there's a good chance that new law will be created. Exactly what is decided, and how Congress reacts, will have a big impact on the Internet going forward.

My position is that it's bad to criminalize natural behavior. And watching a clip of The Office, whether it's legally on Hulu or illegally on YouTube is natural behavior. The only question is whether or not people are getting sued, or going to jail, for doing it.

It's time to rethink copyright laws, and it's time for copyright holders to rethink their business models. The winners won't be the companies that win or lose billion dollar lawsuits. It'll be the companies that throw out everything that's come before, and build new businesses around the natural behavior of people. Remove friction and win.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

I know, I know. It's been an extremely long time since I've even looked at this blog. But I thought I'd give you all an update as to what's been happening in the past 6 months or so. I'm now fully moved in to our brand new apartment in the city. It's pretty amazing if I do say so myself, and if I had to pick out its best features I would have to say A) The location, by far; and B) the aged brick wall that gives it so much character. I'll post pictures on Facebook soon, I just have to reduce them so they can be uploaded.

School just ended the week before last, so that's a huge relief. I already got my grades, and I'm extremely happy with them. I'm well on my way to completing both the Politics and the History major. Next semester I'm taking Civil Liberties, The Molecules of Life (for Nat Sci II), Food and Drugs in Chinese History, and History of Modern Ireland. So if you're in any of my classes, let me know!

I finally got an extremely well paying job at a law firm. No more being a host, no more retail, no more cashiering. I'm a full-blown paralegal for Silverstein & Stern. So over summer I'm working M-F 9-5, and during the school year I'm working Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays part time. I absolutely love the work there, my bosses, and my coworkers, so I have a feeling I'll be settling in there for quite some time. Who knows, I might end up working there as an attorney. The office is down at 40 Fulton (the Thomas Edison Building), so those of you in Water or Cliff next year we need to have lunch and hang out during the week!

Plus, probably the biggest news of all, I'm happily taken!

Well, if I'm bored over summer (which is likely to happen as most of you guys went back home and ditched me) I'll continue to post here. Until then, arrivaderci!

Friday, November 02, 2007

SOME OF YOU ARE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THAT NEARLY EVERYFAMILY IN AMERICA WAS GROSSLY AFFECTED BY WW II. MOST OF YOU DON'T REMEMBER THE RATIONING OF MEAT, SHOES, GASOLINE, AND SUGAR. NO TIRES FOR OUR AUTOMOBILES, AND A SPEED LIMIT OF 35 MILES AN HOUR ON THE ROAD, NOT TO MENTION, NO NEW AUTOMOBILES. READ THIS AND THINK ABOUT HOW WE WOULD REACT TO BEING TAKEN OVER BY FOREIGNERS IN 2007. This is an EXCELLENT essay . Wellthought out and presented.

Historical Significance

Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost allof Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat . TheNazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between Englandand America taking food and war materials .

At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood,and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war .

Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and inoutrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day onGermany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had fewallies.

France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of Francequickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly notan ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe.Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controllingall of Asia.

Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invadingCanada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States overournorthern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control ofAsia and Europe.

America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland,Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it All of Europe, from NorwaytoItaly (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.

The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US haddrastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of thedepression, so that at the outbreak of WW II, Army units were training withbroomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted onthe doors because they didn't have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy hadjust been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.

Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by thedonation of $600 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that wasactually the property of Belgium ) given by Belgium to England to carry onthe war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).

Actually, Belgium surrendered on one day, because it wasunable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels intorubble the next day just to prove they could.

Britain had already been holding out for two years in theface of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force inthe Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany onlybecause Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relativelyminor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler, first turned hisattention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England wason the verge of collapse.

Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up adesperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammeringaway at Germany

Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the siegesof Stalingrad and Moscow alone...90% of them from cold and starvation,mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers.

Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focushis entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened,the Nazis could possibly have won the war.

All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turningpoints in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at anotherone of those key moments in history.

There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has,or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear,biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world

The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis inKaffiyahs --they believe that Islam, a radically conservative form ofWahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe,then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking shouldbe killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust,destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra. (goal)

There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East -- forthe most part not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having itsInquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win-- the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.

If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis,will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asianeconomies.

The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC-- not an OPEC dominated by the ed ucated, rational Saudis of today, but anOPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you wantheating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? Youhad better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the IslamicReformation wins.

If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderateMuslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions,live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th centuryinto the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fadeaway. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.

We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we haveto fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaedaand the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't doit everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at atime and place of our choosing . . . in Iraq. Not in New York , not inLondon, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two importantthings.

(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein wasdirectly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed thatSaddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades.Saddam is a terrorist! Saddam is, or was, a weapon of mass destruction,responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and2,000,000 Iranians.

(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point,with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killingbad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to get here. We alsohave a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be acatalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and anoutpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East foras long as it is needed.

WW II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, reallybegan with a "whimper" in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It beganwith the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years beforethe US joined it. It officially ended in 1945 -- a 17 year war -- and wasfollowed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to getthose countries reconstructed and running on their own a gain...a 27 yearwar.

WW II cost the United States an amount equal toapproximately a full year's GDP -- adjusted for inflation, equal to about$12 trillion dollars. WW II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killedin action, and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.

The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about$160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost NewYork. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughlyequivilant to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the9/11 terrorist attack

The cost of not fighting and winning WW II would have beenunimaginably greater -- a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and GermanNazism .

This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in whicheverything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy,uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probablyalways will be

The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamicterrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if weignore it.

If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stableIraq, then we have an ally, like England , in the Middle East, a platform,from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. Thehistory of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civilityand civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer theworld.

The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient andnever ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about toget nuclear weapons. Unless some body prevents them from getting them.

We have four options:

1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclearweapons.

2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclearweapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran 's progress on nuclearweapons is what Iran claims it is).

3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance inthe Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, andultimately in America.

OR

4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later whenthe Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad hasdominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. Itwill, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.

If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that yourchildren, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahsand the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.

The history of the world is the history of civilizationclashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about whatsociety and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.

Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win.The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.

Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schoolsteach too ittle history for perspective to be clear, especially in the youngAmerican mind.

The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until theBerlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!

Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fightingNapoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!

World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten yearoccupation, and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan. World War IIresulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.

The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq.The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944,the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.

In WW II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week -- for four years.Most of the individual battles of WW II lost more Americans than the entireIraq war has done so far.

The stakes are at least as high... A world dominated byrepresentative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personalfreedoms...or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, bythe Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).

It's difficult to understand why the average American doesnot grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom,but evidently not for Iraqis.

"Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe. Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran,Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peaceactivism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed!

The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights,civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihadwins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights,democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.

Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming downon the side of their own worst enemy!

Please consider passing along copies of this article tostudents in high school, college and university as it contains informationabout the American past that is very meaningful today -- history aboutAmerica that very likely is completely unknown by them (and theirinstructors, too). By being denied the facts of our history, they are at adecided disadvantage when it comes to reasoning and thinking through theissues of today. They are prime targets for misinformation campaigns beamedat enlisting them in causes and beliefs that are special interest agendadriven.

Raymond S. Kraft is a writer living in Northern Californiathat has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

"...To these three sorts of law must be added a fourth, the most important of all, which is inscribed neither on marble nor breass, but in the hearts of the citizens, a law which forms to true constitution of the state, a law which gathers new strength every day and which, when other laws age or wither away, reanimates or replaces them; a law which sustains a nation in the spirit of its institution and imperceptibly substitutes the force of habit for the force of authority. I refer to morals, customs, and, above all, belief: this feature, unknown to our political theorists, is the one on which the success of all the other laws depends; it is the feature on which the great law-giver bestows his secret care, for though he seems to confine himself to detailed legal enactments, which are really only the arching of the vault, he knows that morals, which develop more slowly, ultimately become its immovable keystone."

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

"Well, I should probably head up to class...even though I'd love to stay and finish my coffee while we discuss hormones." I returned the spent cappuccino to the coffee bar that I get coffee at every monday and wednesday, and started up the stairs. I walked into the classroom, and the guest speaker, whom the only thing I knew about at the time was that he wrote the book, The Ha-Ha. I pulled up a chair and joined the semicircle of my classmates that had already formed around him.

The author, Dave King, introduced himself and gave a brief summary of his background and what inspired him to write the book, after the last few stragglers walked in. Then he proceeded to give a brief outline of the book, and as soon as he described the main character I was amazed - even though he is a fictional character, he sounded like a similar person to my dad (drafted into Vietnam, was blown up from a land mine, and it sounded to me as if he had PTSD).

Later came an intense Q&A session, and I immediately asked him if the main character did indeed have PTSD, and when he answered that although the term did not exist right after Vietnam, a modern psychiatrist would most likely diagnose him with the disorder. I was floored; from then on, I listened intently to every word he said. From what he was saying, namely that he went from doing something completely different form what he originally started doing, which was painting and art in college, he turned his life around, even though he was a successful businessman who had built up his business from scratch. One day, a friend called him and profoundly changed his mentality towards what he was doing with his life, and he decided to pursue his passion of creative (and specifically fictional) writing. He went back to grad school at Columbia, and graduated with his thesis, which was an early version of The Ha-Ha.

Then the selling point for me came when I asked him about how he went about publishing his work: he started publishing to literary magazines and to The New Yorker, and a literary agent saw him on the train who happened to hear a rumor about his New Yorker submissions. And BAM! His novel is now a nationwide bestseller. And that's what inspired me.

It really opened up my eyes and made me realize, I don't mind doing math, but I wouldn't want to do it 24/7...actually, who am I kidding, I hate math. I'm not bad at it by any means, but it just isn't for me. I know for sure that I want to major in Politics (specifically American politics), and eventually do law, but I was confused as to what I was going to have my second major in, or if I was going to even double major, or what I was going to minor in if I wasn't. I originally thought it would be Econ, but now because of today I changed my mind. I'm going to double minor, in pre-business and creative writing. Although I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to double minor with the credit limits that NYU has (they're really strict...you're only allowed to take 18 credits, which translates into three regular classes and a class that has a lab). Pre-business is a 9-class minor, and a creative writing minor is another 4 classes. For the Politics major, I have to take 10 more classes, for a total of 23 classes. I have 3 years to go, with 8 classes per year, so I might just make it. If not, I'll just take a class or two in creative writing and call it a day.

So randomly, I met this author from New York in Italy in one of my classes who probably profoundly changed my life - in the course of an hour. Inspiration can come at any time.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Just talked to Rasaalika yesterday, and it's now confirmed that we're going skydiving on Monday (weather permitting, of course). I looked at the weather forecast and it looks like it's going to be a perfect day: 72 degrees (22 Celsius) and not a cloud in sight. What a wonderful birthday treat (even though it's the 10th not the 9th)!

Also on Monday: Matt, Andy, Dean and I are all picking our room for NYU in NYC. We're getting an apartment-style dorm, with a kitchen, dining/living room and two bedrooms for the four of us. Most likely we'll be overlooking Union Square, which is about a 5 minute walk from campus, but we could also have a view of the Staten Island Ferries and the waterfront, although that residence hall is pretty far from campus and would be about a 15 minute subway ride each way. I'll post again to let you know which one we got into, so we can start taking reservations throughout the year for friends and family members who want to visit NYC for free.

Quick and Recent Status

About Me

Born: Palo Alto, CA | Lived: Santa Cruz until 14 | Corona, CA until 18 | Florence Italy until 19 | New York City: present.
I believe that from the moment of conception you are alive and I don’t need a court to convince me of that. I think being a minority does not make you noble or victimized, and does not entitle you to anything. I believe everyone has a right to pray to whoever or whatever, when and where they want to, especially in schools. I believe that it is not right for people who jump the border to have licenses and amnesty granted to them, when people who attempt to enter legally are threatened with being thrown out for not having the right paper stamped. I also think they have the right to pull you over if you're breaking the law, regardless of what color you are, who you know, or who you are related to. I think if you are not intelligent enough to know how a ballot works, I don't want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation in the world for the next four years.